Football – England – Championship
Tuesday 18th December 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Brighton and Millwall kick-off this week’s midweek fixtures in the Championship at the Seward Stadium on Tuesday night as the Christmas holiday schedule starts hotting up.
Brighton have had a tough run of fixtures recently against Crystal Palace 0-3 away, and draws against Charlton Athletic and a 0-0 stalemate on the weekend against Nottingham Forest, and it doesn’t get any easier with the visit of Millwall on Tuesday night.
Brighton have lost just once in their last ten league matches but interestingly, their four home wins so far this season have been against the teams at the bottom of the division ie 5-1 v Barnsley, 3-0 v Sheffield Wednesday, 1-0 v Peterborough United and a 2-0 win over Bristol City as a trend is starting to emerge.
The Seagulls’ home record stands at a solid 4-5-2 15/7 and they’ve tended to draw against the better teams in the division with points shared against Leeds United, Bolton and Nottingham Forest. I believe Millwall (currently in 6th place) are in this category and will make it hard for Brighton to take all the points here tonight. I won’t go into Brighton’s attacking personnel again here as you can find this in the Brighton v Nottingham Forest preview.
Millwall bounced back well at the weekend against Leicester City winning 1-0 following a rare loss at Ipswich Town the previous match 0-3 at Portman Road. But, Ipswich Town are currently one of the form teams of the Championship and have been unbeaten in four of their last six matches.
As well as their win over Leicester City, Millwall have put together some impressive wins of late with victories at Wolves and Blackburn (both to nil) along with a point at Watford and a 4-1 win at Nottingham Forest. The Lions’ away record stands at 4-4-3 17/17 and they’ve lost just once on their travels in their last eight matches.
Millwall’s leading scorer is former Birmingham City & New Zealand striker Chris Wood (8 goals, 2 assists), and he’s well supported by midfielder Liam Trotter (6 goals, 2 assists), former Wolves forward Andrew Keogh (5 goals, 6 assists) and former Reading creative midfielder James Henry (3 goals, 6 assists) providing the creativity.
Whilst Brighton have been hard to beat at home and have the best defensive record on home turf along with leaders Cardiff City, they have found it difficult to put the better teams in the Championship to bed with all three points so I’ll back a Millwall side who possess enough in their locker room to gain at least a point here tonight hence my pick. Could be a 1-1 draw scoreline.
Pick: Millwall AH+0.5 @ 1.81 Pinnacle looks like solid value to me
